Annoying Fictional Characters

[SimonDoom]

To be fair, they actually do the same in the book. It's just that it happens off-screen, and Legolas and Gimli tell the story after the fact.

The really weird bit in the movie is all the ships: in the books, they're manned by the soldiers from Lebanon that join Aragorn after the Dead chase away the Corsairs. But who's manning the ships in the movie?

My recollection is that the Dead were used to take over the Corsairs' ships, and once they did that they were released and did not go with Aragorn to Minas Tirith.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Very interesting! I'll check that out.

Jackson certainly altered things for the sake of spectacle.


For instance, in the Helm's Deep battle, at the end, when Gandalf leads a charge of the Rohirrim, the slope they ride down looks impossibly steep. I don't think the horses would be able to stay up. They'd all go rolling into the orcs below.

I wondered about that too. I haven't reached that part in the Helm's Deep series yet but I expect he'll have something to say about it. He does discuss elsewhere that the object of a cavalry charge is not to physically ram into infantry but to terrify them so they'll break formation and run; even if they could stay upright on that slope, it's hard to see how the Rohirrim could avoid crashing into orcs at the end, and that comes with high risk of injury to the horses and riders.

One thing he does acknowledge in discussing the cavalry scenes is that some things in the film are unrealistic simply because there's no safe way to make them realistic (e.g. the Rohirrim keep their spears raised even when charging, when they should be lowered). That's easier to excuse.

The most disappointing choice to me was the decision to have the Dead win the battle of Minas Tirith. They had a more limited role in the book. In the movie they're a deus ex machina, and it lessens the value of what the living do in the battle.

IIRC the Minas Tirith essay makes that same criticism, or something like it.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Uhm... can I blame autocorrect?

I don't see how we can stop you.

 

[SimonDoom]

I wondered about that too. I haven't reached that part in the Helm's Deep series yet but I expect he'll have something to say about it. He does discuss elsewhere that the object of a cavalry charge is not to physically ram into infantry but to terrify them so they'll break formation and run; even if they could stay upright on that slope, it's hard to see how the Rohirrim could avoid crashing into orcs at the end, and that comes with high risk of injury to the horses and riders.

One thing he does acknowledge in discussing the cavalry scenes is that some things in the film are unrealistic simply because there's no safe way to make them realistic (e.g. the Rohirrim keep their spears raised even when charging, when they should be lowered). That's easier to excuse.


IIRC the Minas Tirith essay makes that same criticism, or something like it.

I started reading it, the section on the logistics behind the Minas Tirith attack. He makes a few digs at Game of Thrones. Considering that Game of Thrones is more "realistic" in some ways than LOTR, it's startling how bad it is on logistics. Too many things happen with the way the characters move around the kingdom that make no sense whatsoever, Daenerys's dragon rescue of Jon and crew north of the wall being the most ridiculous example.

Speaking of Game of Thrones, since this thread is about annoying characters I'm going to propose one that might be controversial: Jon Snow. Despite being valiant and seemingly incorruptible, he constantly makes bad decisions and takes a rather passive position at the end of the series. Nothing ever comes of his "real" identity, after years of buildup and cyber chatter about it. It's a big McGuffin.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Speaking of Game of Thrones, since this thread is about annoying characters I'm going to propose one that might be controversial:

Every character in Game of Thrones, both book and show.

The most disappointing choice to me was the decision to have the Dead win the battle of Minas Tirith. They had a more limited role in the book. In the movie they're a deus ex machina, and it lessens the value of what the living do in the battle.

It's more important to have the Dead on screen than it is to have to explain where a whole bunch of allied forces from from. The whole idea of Gondor's domains are cut from the film; none of the allies, including Prince Imrahil, who's on probably as many pages in Return of the King as Eomer, appear. In the theatrical cut, Aragorn says "what say you?" to the King of the Dead, and the next time you see them is at Minis Tirith. It's a hell of a lot more dramatic than the ghosts destroying an unrelated army, then Aragorn sailing around picking up extra troops from the south.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

What language is being used in this thread?

 

[Pabiporffor]

Jesus. God is that guy preachy or what?

 

[CyranoJ]

I didn't actually submit my own choice for annoying fictional character. There are more than a few candidates, but I have to say Rick Sanchez from Rick & Morty takes it. The character in the show's early couple of seasons is actually very funny, but he gets steadily less so as his characterization creeps from being "drunk mad scientist goofball" into being "bitter white dude whose cross to bear is being smarter than the rest of the multiverse with the power of a deity." The show suffered for it, and so did the fandom, given the influx of chuds naturally drawn to the latter angle.

 

[EdwardsOtherSide]

The Sex He Deserves

The MMC was written to be annoying.
I really loathed that whiny b!tch. He got the sex he deserved.

I enjoyed writing that more than I should have.